Metro hopes he’s not done as a Canadien

Canadiens’ Glen Metropolit with his son Max, 5, during an outdoor skate this past winter.Courtesy Evelyn Jerassy

Glen Metropolit had planned to take his 8-year-old daughter, Alivia, to a birthday party Sunday and clown around with his 5-year-old son, Max. Instead, he spent two hours in the Bell Centre clinic having a painful separated shoulder tended to by a member of the Canadiens’ athletic therapy staff.

An unrestricted free agent come season’s end, Metro hopes he’s not played his final game in a Canadiens jersey after an open-ice collision Saturday finished his game against New Jersey after just 1:21 and two shifts. He expects he’ll have an MRI early this week on what the Canadiens are calling only an “upper-body injury;” many people, however, saw the 35-year-old veteran leaving the Bell Centre with his left arm in a sling.

More details here in a feature on the versatile Metropolit and the road that lies ahead, with the Canadiens this morning beginning preparations for Wednesday’s home game vs. Carolina.

I really don’t think we would have gotten past the first round that year. We were a pretty bad team with a great powerplay. Pretty much every player in our lineup was a minus player,some real bad ones too. I think we had 4 or 5 guys in the -20 to -30 area. Compared to this year where most of our guys are plus players. But you know,anything can happend in the post season. So who knows. All i remember from that night was being so pissed at carbo when it was announced that huet would start,when halak clearly deserved to be the go to guy.

Theyv’e gotta re-sign him — he makes just $1M a year, leads by example, does all that’s asked of him and more, and surely would re-sign without a huge raise. Moen is earning his $1.5M, and that’s likely a good bit more than Metro will make next year.

I bet you any amount of money that Pierre Gauther and Bob Gainey forced Carbo to play Price in the 4 up and 4 down loss that had hockey wives rioting in the streets all around the world it seems…..next we’ll see if PG and BG force JM to again play Price 4 up and 4 down once Price and Halak team up to save us a playoff spot….and then fire JM for their decision?

Metro has a fantastic story and really helped out the habs when they needed him with all of the injuries. I hate to even say it but he will not be back as a hab next year. With being so tight on the cap they have young cheaper guys they can put in his role. I will miss him next year as I am sure a lot of guys will on the team. I would not be suprised if Boston doesn’t sign him back again

Carbo dropped the ball huge in that game. Jaro was the only reason we were in a position to claim a playoff spot at that point. He should have gone with the guy who got him there,not the guy who hadn’t played a full game in 2 months.

You can often tell a lot about someone by their face. Metro has a “nice’ face – just look at that pic above. That alone wold make me happy if we signed him for more years. But he does not need any sympathy – he has earned it by his play and demeanor. 1. He accepts his role as a 3rd/4th liner. 2. He is happy to be a Hab. 3. He is a pretty consistent performer. 4. He is a low salary hit. The Habs would be insane not to keep him for 1-2 more years.

I know you’re just trying to find parallels, but I think your memory is a little fogy. Jaro actually lost his last start (and a chance to clinch the playoffs) before that showdown with the Leafs. The Rangers scored 3 goals on 25 shots and Huet replaced Halak in the third period.

I think Jaro only actually played 9 down the stretch, the team going 7-2, after Aebischer (who just previously had a mini 2-3 game good run of his own) stunk it up. If you want to go back a few more starts to make it the last 10 for Halak, then the team was actually 7-3. A very good run that came up just short. After that they went to their “go-to guy” at the time.

I’m not disagreeing that it might have been the wrong decision to play a “bound to be rusty” Huet, but it was a tough call either way.

It’s either the go-to guy coming off injury or the streaking backup (technically 3rd stringer) that just had his chance to clinch and didn’t.

…Metro has half the native talent a lot of players have …but had the heart and dedication to make the most of what He had …and He has been a prominent part of the heart transplant provided Our Team this season

The Penguins won last year with a worse defense than we have, and a weaker goalie. They do have bigger forwards though. That Sidney Crosby kid is a whopping 5’11”, way bigger than Plekanec and Gomez who are both… Oh never mind.

“The Flyers were trying to snap a five-game losing streak and [goaltender Brian] Boucher was
1-8-3 since Dec. 14. He was also playing without a safety net. His
backup goaltender was Carter Hutton,
the former UMASS-Lowell goalie who had all of four AHL games
professional experience before getting called up on an emergency basis
after Johan
Backlund tweaked his groin on Saturday.”

He doesnt fight, doesnt dish out physical punishment and cant outmuscle larger players. We have lots of guys like that when we need a few size large (6″3 or bigger) guys who can fight when needed and play shutdown, physical hockey.

Metro has been a very good fill in considering Gainey’s other plans didnt work out (see Lapierre, and Chipper).

You’ve been nothing but a heart-and-soul player, and I’ve been proud to see you in La Flannelle. Come back to us healthy next year if it’s a season-ender. You’ve still got fantastic hands and a work ethic that’s second-to-none. I’ve never seen you drift out there.

They have to beat Carolina no question, however they’ve played spoiler well lately…Either way looking at the schedule, I realize both Boston, and Atlanta play both Monday and Tuesday, to the point when the Habs take to the ice Wednesday night they could be sitting tied in 8th/9th.

If it really is a shoulder seperation then he’ll be back before the playoffs start. I too seperated my shoulder playing hockey this year. They told me average recovery time is 2-3 weeks but I was feeling great after 1 and a half. Unless its a very severe seperation, which judging by the hit i doubt is the case, he’ll be back soon.

Love to see Metro come back next Year. Plays tough every shift and the reason he leads us in power play goals is he knows his place which is in front of the opposition goalie unlike some of the other habs. His salary, I have no idea what it will take to keep him here but from what i have seen coming up from the Bulldogs ( not bashing anyone) there is no one who will score 16-20 goals on the 4th line. Fire Laps into the Sh@ter (70 games 6 goals 6 assists -15 ) there’s a player we need to keep. However if Metro does not return this season and is not willing to take a pay cut he will be gone. Souray , Komo, Lang, Schneider and Tanguay all ended the season with injuries and were not offered contracts at all or at lower than the value they thought they were worth and all have either had injury plagued careers since (Souray and now Komo) after or played in the AHL (Schneider) or not played well at all this year (Tanguay & Lang). Whowever does the injury evaluations for the Habs has done an excellent job. May not be polular with the fans but has saved tons of money.BTW someone keeps bring Chirs Higgins name up for us to bring back. Since going to Calgary 2goals (one empty net) and 1 assist in 12 games. We need like we need another Laps.

You’re optimistic! What makes you think we can hang on to 8th? Atlanta is on our tail, and I don’t see us winning many more games. Anyone think we can beat the Leafs in the last game of the season? I sure don’t.

Metro is an awesome depth forward. A great guy to have around in case of injuries and days off for regulars. But our team is in desperate need of some toughness and size and unfortunately Metro doesnt fit that bill.

I would sign him to a minimum contract with the intention of playing him about half the time. Ryan White is bigger and tougher (though not big enough) and Chipchura was supposed to replace him this year but we still need an upgrade for everyday fourth line center.

Hey don’t give up! We’re healthy! We have a system! We can beat the up and coming Carolina Hurricanes in the n 2 games we face them, we can beat Toronto easily as we were supposed to do in TO last week, we can beat Buffalo no problem and the same goes when we play Philadelphia, A piece of cake.

Wake up RetroMikey, it’s a dream, it’s a dream.

Yep, the last game against the Leafs could determine our playoff fate and this reminds me of the 2006-07 season where we played the Leafs in the last game.

We all know who played in the nets for us which lost the game for us and we all know Halak should have tended in the nets. Afterall, he gave us a chance to make the playoffs with his unbeaten streak in the last 10 games that season.